ANN LIVERMORE ' 80(In termsof life-shapingactivities, the fouryears I spentin Chapel Hill,the two yearsI spent atStanford wereof the morelife-shaping yearsfor me, in termsofbeing mind-expanding, interms ofhowI thought aboutthings andthought aboutthe world, andinfluencing howbig an impactI thoughtI could have.'Arm Livermorespective in terms ofjust seeing howpowerful the medicalfield is now."It certainly mademe appreciate howlucky I was in termsof having had amajor operation thatwent so well. I cameout of it, I think, inawe of what can bedone."But when askedthe most importantmilestone in her life,aside from gettingmarried and raising adaughter, she skipsover the transplantand the HP turn-around."In terms oflife-shaping activities, thefour years I spent inChapel Hill, the twoyears I spent at Stan-ford [earning herMBA] were probablysix of the more life-shaping years for me, in terms of beingmind-expanding, in terms of how Ithought about things and thought aboutthe world, and influencing how big animpact I thought I could have."The teamwork multiplierLivermore distinguished herself atChapel Hill for her work in service organi-zations as well as for academics. She wasJason, or leader, of the Order of the GoldenFleece, was on the executive committee ofAlpha Phi Omega, served as treasurer ofthe Order of the Old Well and wasinducted into the Order of the Valkyries inrecognition of her scholarship and conm1U-nity service.Livermore also earned a 4.0 GPA andUNC's nomination for a Rhodes Scholar-ship. By the time she left the University,Livermore says she had a firm belief thatanything was possible."If you could pull together the rightteam ofpeople, you could make almostanything happen."When HP almounced its quarterlyearnings in May, profit per share jumped to51 cents from 33 cents the year before. Ofthat, almost 40 percent came from Liver-more's businesses. Printers and personalcomputers made up most of the balance.Following the War Room principle of"less growth, more profits," Livermore'sbusinesses showed small increases in rev-enue but impressive leaps in profit of79percent for storage and servers and 19 per-cent for services. The software business,which had been losing ITlOney, swung intothe black.Two analyst upgrades soon followed.Daniel Renouard ofRobert W Baird citedlong-term opportunities in the enterprisebusinesses as one reason for upgrading HPto "outperfornl."The usual suspects on the financialchannels, such as TheStreet's Jinl Cramer,have suddenly seen the light in Palo Alto.And on Wall Street, new CEO MarkHurd is hailed as the savior of HP .IDtLivermore has won alot of points sinceAugust 2004, whenHP's stock startedclimbing. The turn-around was wellunder way by thetime CEO CarlyFiorina was forcedout as CEO. MarkHurd, above, tookover in early 2005.CARL MARZIALI, a journalist based inSouthern California, also wrote about MarkHumayun ' 94 and an experimental retinalimplantJor the Review in MaylJune 2004.46Septemb e r / O c tob e r 2006